In Octo­ber 1984, trans­porta­tion crews con­struct­ed the final bypass of Route 66 in Williams, Ari­zona. Pro­test­ers right­ful­ly pre­dict­ed that the work spelled the end of America’s Main Street, and 15 per­cent of Route 66 is now gone. Could there be anoth­er way to deal with aging infra­struc­ture? In Nor­way, con­struc­tion of the E39 con­nec­tion to Den­mark rep­re­sents the largest trans­porta­tion invest­ment in its his­to­ry. Yet the Scan­di­na­vian coun­try has simul­ta­ne­ous­ly rein­vent­ed vin­tage arter­ies as cel­e­bra­tions of place. Since 1993, the Nor­we­gian Scenic Routes ini­tia­tive has worked almost entire­ly with young Nor­we­gian archi­tects and land­scape design­ers to build or mod­ern­ize rest facil­i­ties and view­ing spots along 18 road­ways that may oth­er­wise have fad­ed into obscu­ri­ty. This undertaking’s geo­graph­ic reach spans from Sta­vanger to Lap­land. Its cul­tur­al ambi­tions are equal­ly far-reach­ing. Whether upgrad­ing fer­ry wait­ing rooms or build­ing an all-new scenic over­look, the gov­ern­ment has encour­aged its col­lab­o­ra­tors to cre­ate deeply mean­ing­ful designs. Num­ber­ing approx­i­mate­ly 200 so far, some inter­ven­tions ampli­fy a site’s nat­ur­al fea­tures while oth­ers stand in stark con­trast to land­scape. All enhance vis­i­tors’ com­fort as well as their under­stand­ing of Nor­we­gian iden­ti­ty — while pro­vid­ing a career break to dozens of tal­ents in the process. 

With the scenic routes now com­plete and Route 66’s cen­ten­ni­al on the near hori­zon, Amer­i­cans may want to revive their his­toric infra­struc­ture accord­ing to the Nor­we­gian roadmap.

Statens veg­vesen, Norway’s gov­ern­ment bureau of road­ways, ini­ti­at­ed the Nor­we­gian Scenic Routes with four routes. One of these routes is Sogne­f­jel­let, which gets its name from the 4,705-foot moun­tain pass that it tra­vers­es between vil­lages Lom and Gaup­ne. Sogne­f­jel­let is also home to the first cul­tur­al com­mis­sion of the Scenic Routes ini­tia­tive, at Mount Mef­jel­let. Work­ing with Jensen & Skod­vin Arkitek­tkon­tor, artist Knut Wold assem­bled enor­mous slabs of igneous rock into a crag­gy mono­lith whose cen­ter com­pris­es a square void. Upon its open­ing, tourists flocked to the sculp­ture, using its por­tal-like inte­ri­or to frame pho­tographs of the rugged landscape. 

Skirt­ing the Arc­tic Ocean, Varanger is the north­ern­most and most remote of the 18 scenic routes. The road may be even bet­ter described as a neck­lace of bird-watch­ing des­ti­na­tions: a Vardø sta­tion made of angu­lar con­crete planes; a sim­i­lar­ly mus­cu­lar form in Hamn­ing­berg that’s fin­ished more like a cab­in; and a suite of three white­washed build­ings on Mount Domen whose pink-tint­ed glass stands apart from the snowy land­scape and wards off rare Arc­tic birds from tak­ing aim at watch­ers. All were designed by the young Nor­we­gian stu­dio Biotope.

Due to its prox­im­i­ty to Bergen, Hardan­gervid­da is a well-trod tour in the Nor­we­gian Scenic Routes port­fo­lio and a fit­ting spot for one of the final projects under­tak­en by Statens veg­vesen. (Nor­way has deemed the routes ​“com­plete” because the roads are ful­ly net­worked. The gov­ern­ment is still com­mis­sion­ing archi­tec­tur­al inter­ven­tions and art instal­la­tions and keep­ing exist­ing ones in good work­ing order.) 

Dri­ving along Hardan­gervid­da feels like a glimpse into the planet’s roil­ing for­ma­tive years. A moun­tain plateau plum­mets into a val­ley, which tran­si­tions just as sud­den­ly into the head of one of Bergen’s largest fjords. The Vørings­fos­sen water­fall marks the first crit­i­cal point in this pal­pa­bly tec­ton­ic jour­ney, and the Carl-Vig­go Hølme­bakk – designed rest facil­i­ty that shares its name with the falls has remade an unsafe over­look into a space for expe­ri­enc­ing awe. After Hølme­bakk earned this com­mis­sion in 2009, crews imme­di­ate­ly got to work on view­ing plat­forms whose sharply geo­met­ric podi­ums and spaghet­ti-like rail­ings evoke the jagged rocks and erod­ed sur­faces vis­i­ble in the water. The architect’s full vision of Vørings­fos­sen as a cam­pus, woven togeth­er by land­scaped paths and stun­ning bridges, reached com­ple­tion last fall.